With the increasing capacity and capability of personal computers, as well as improved multimedia interfaces for these computers, it has become popular to use personal computers as a repository for multimedia content, such as songs, movies, etc. Particularly with music, the increased popularity of storing multimedia information on a personal computer has resulted in a variety of products and services to serve this industry. For example, a variety of stand-alone players of encoded multimedia information have been developed, including, for example, the iPod, produced by Apple Computer of Cupertino, Calif. Additionally, services have been developed around these devices, which allow consumers to purchase music and other multimedia information in digital form suitable for storage and playback using personal computers, including, for example, the iTunes music service, also run by Apple Computer.
These products and services have resulted in an environment where many consumers use their personal computer as a primary vehicle for obtaining, storing, and accessing multimedia information. One drawback to such a system is that although the quality of multimedia playback systems for computers, e.g., displays, speakers, etc. have improved dramatically in the last several years, these systems still lag behind typical entertainment devices, e.g., stereos, televisions, projection systems, etc. in terms of performance, fidelity, and usability for the typical consumer.
Thus, it would be beneficial to provide a mechanism whereby a consumer could easily obtain, store, and access multimedia content using a personal computer, while also being able to listen, view or otherwise access this content using conventional entertainment devices, such as stereo equipment, televisions, home theatre systems, etc. Because of the increasing use of personal computers and related peripherals in the home, it would also be advantageous to integrate such a mechanism with a home networking to provide an integrated electronic environment for the consumer.
In addition to these needs, there is also increasing interest in the field of home networking, which involves allowing disparate devices in the home or workplace to recognize each other and exchange data, perhaps under the control of some central hub. To date a number of solutions in this area have involved closed systems that required the purchase of disparate components from the same vendor. For example, audio speaker systems that allow computer-controlled switching of music from one location to another may be purchased as a system from a single vendor, but they may be expensive and/or may limit the consumer's ability to mix and match components of a home network from different vendors according to her own preferences. Thus it would be beneficial to provide a mechanism by which various home networking components from differing vendors can nonetheless interact in a home network environment.